Binarynights
At Binarynights, we greatly value the input and loyalty of our long-standing users. After the release of ForkLift 4 we have received extensive feedback from our dedicated user base expressing their disappointment over the absence of an upgrade path from previous versions of ForkLift. We’ve been deeply pondering how to address this concern and provide a solution that not only compensates those who have already made a purchase but also offers opportunities for those who plan to switch to ForkLift 4 in the future. Our aim is to express our heartfelt appreciation for our existing users.
We recognize that we made a significant mistake by not adequately acknowledging the loyalty of our users. While we tried to structure pricing in a way that would make everyone feel equally valued, we now see that we fell short in recognizing the commitment of our existing user base. To fix this, we have come up with a solution that can equally satisfy users that have already made the transition to ForkLift 4 and those who are thinking about that.
We are offering an additional 100 days of free updates of existing users
We will reward existing users by offering an additional 100 days of free updates. If you purchase a 1 or 2-year license and provide your old license key during the purchase, you will receive 100 extra days of free updates on top of the currently available 100 day bonus, totaling 200 days of additional free updates, equivalent to a 54% discount based on the 1-year license.
Retroactive bonus for users who have already purchased ForkLift 4
For those who have already purchased ForkLift 4, we will introduce a feature within ForkLift where you can enter your old serial number. By doing so, you will also receive an additional 100 days of updates on top of the time included in your license and the initial 100-day bonus, totaling 200 days extra. This way, we will guarantee that there is no discrepancy between users who have already made their purchases early on and those who join later.
We have learned our lesson from this setback, and we sincerely apologize for any frustration this may have caused. Our goal is to rectify this situation and, most importantly, to express our gratitude for your loyalty. We hope that this update will help ease the disappointment that many of you have expressed.
We require some time to put in place the necessary technical infrastructure for these changes. We will keep you updated on the progress.
EDITED TO ADD: Please note that the option to enter the old license key is not available yet. We are currently working on the technical part of making that possible. You will be able to enter the license key on our site when that option becomes available, and the 100 days will be added to your license after that. You can buy a license now, and enter the old key later. We will write a new blog post when that options becomes available, hopefully, very soon.
I did NOT provide my old license key when I purchased FL4…. how can I get the extra 200 days?
That option is not available yet. We are working on that right now. You will be able to enter the old license key later into a form on our site. The 100 days will be added to your existing license key after that. We will write a new blog post when that option becomes available.
thank you and thanks for remembering your long-time users.
Thanks for the offer from a loyal customer !
Thank you!
Thanks for thinking of long-time users. When I try to purchase a new license, there does not seem to be an option to provide the old key. CAn you please be specific where this should be entered? Thanks
P.S. You should also check your email parser. It chokes at email addresses containing a “+” sign (valid character).
That option is not available yet. We are working on that right now. You will be able to enter the old license key later into a form on our site. The 100 days will be added to your existing license key after that. We will write a new blog post when that option becomes available.
Hey! Thanks for that step.
I had a little bad aftertaste reading received email from BinaryNights support about new licence model.
I couldn’t say I’m super happy now, however, your wish to show a sign of respect to the old customers is definitely a positive thing.
Thanks!
Thank you!
Hello there
I already asked in the former blog post but didn’t get an answer yet.
I’m a satisfied FL3 user and thinking of upgrading to the version 4.
Is there a educational discount? If so, how can I get one?
Just noticed I have gotten an answer in the former post.
No educational discount…very disappointing. Literally every store provide students with an discount…
A good move! 🙂
Thanks. We think so as well.
Returning keyboard selection would be a good move as well 😉
Daily user of Forklift here. I’m coming from Total Commander on Windows. I also need keyboard selection to work efficiently!
I’m sorry but currently we don’t plan to add keyboard selection.
My licence expires in Feb.2024. Will the offer of an extra 200 days be available then? (i.e., will this be a bit of a long running thing?). Or if I were to purchase the upgrade today, – will the new 2 years + 200 days be added to my existing licence?
Thanks,
Thanks for your efforts. My understanding for „LifeTime licence“ is still differing from your „new way to go“.
Generally lifetime means, to get updates for major versions for the hole lifetime span, not 12 month, not 24 month even when added +200 days for prior customers.
It‘s even critical to update operating system near software due to security reasons.
Your new model reminds me on a „subscription model“ under the misleading label „lifetime“.
Well, even if I really love your software ForkLift as a longtime user, you got me lost now. 😢
Same here, this is just a 1 or 2 year subscription service. Nothing lifetime at all..
To be fair, there is a significant difference to subscription software, namely that you get to keep using it. But I agree that “lifetime” is potentially misleading, and especially in the world of MacOS where apps can just stop working in the next version these maintenance updates are especially important.
Regarding the topic of the blog post, personally I would have just appreciated a discount for existing customers. The 200 days are more in favor for the devs since in the end they can decide when to release major new features.
Me too. Very deceiving wording, but that’s the standard these days. I like to purchase and own my software. Hate subscription models as they’ve no incentive for the developer to improve things.
I won’t upgrade to version 4. Version 3 does the job. And version 4 doesn’t add ANYTHING compelling to the mix that’s worth the price and the switch to sitting on a brick in 100 days. No, thank you.
I have found an issue where in onedrive (non-cloud service), if I delete any file in the onedrive subfolder, the file appears in the first level folder of onedrive after deletion and cannot be deleted via context menu/cmd+del, but can be deleted via opt+cmd+del. This happens only in onedrive, but it works fine in dropbox.
Sorry for my bad English, I hope you understand.
Thank you for reporting this. This is a known issue and the issue is on OneDrive’s side, unfortunately, we can’t fix it. Please delete the files with Command-Option-Del.
Hi, interesting comment about OneDrive. I have looked for it.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/files-and-folders-are-being-moved-to-root-folder/9cea1604-1fdf-489e-b267-ecce4c381f31
They mention a bug in ForkLift. Intuitivey this makes sense, as I am using OneDrive with dozens of apps, only forklift exhibiting this behavior. I was hoping to see this fixed in ForkLIft, (and happy to pay an upgrade fee) as it impacts “file management” when I always have to siwtch to a different tool to delete a file.
That ticket was opened on our behalf by a ForkLift user. It is written in the developer documentation how an item should be put into the Trash: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/filemanager/1414306-trashitem ForkLift does exactly that what is written there and that has been the same for years. This issue with OneDrive only started on Ventura. Nothing was changed in the code of ForkLift and the API wasn’t changed by Apple either, the same method should work without issues. We have investigated this issue and we believe that we are doing everything correctly. Other apps also have the same issue. What are those apps that you work with and don’t have the same problem?
Have the same on FL3.5.8.
While we are talking OneDrive, the v4 trial fails to authenticate to OneDrive. The login box hangs after completing the Microsoft login.
If you still have this issue, then please write us at support [at] binarynights [dot] com and send us a screen recording of the issue.
Thank you for the extra discount. I’ve been using file-transfer apps since “Fetch,” way back in 1990. (Then Anarchy which became Interarchy, and ExpanDrive, and CyberDuck, and Transit which became Transmit….) ForkLift is by far my favorite, and I’ve been using it exclusively since ForkLift 2 first came out.
One bug(?) or lack-of-feature that I see with ForkLift 4 is that it seems impossible to delete favorites from the sidebar — although I discovered that you *can* delete a whole favorite group.
And I wonder whether it would be possible to use a different favorite icon for Wasabi — even though it uses Amazon S3 protocol, it isn’t actually Amazon.
And, finally, a way to speed things up a little: If I preview an image file on a server with a slow connection (and I’m talking, say, 150MB TIFF files, so this can take a few seconds), and then tell ForkLift to download the file, it clearly re-downloads it instead of using the copy it just downloaded for the preview.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful, exacting work with ForkLift. It’s become a beautiful, full-featured, intuitive, and nimble app — exactly what I need. 🙂
Thank you for your loyalty!
Unfortunately, secondary clicks (Control-click instead of a real right-click) don’t work in the sidebar or the favorite manager because SwiftUI doesn’t support that. We will add a Delete button at the bottom of the favorite manager, and that way deletion will be possible.
I have added your idea about the Wasabi icon to our feature request list. I’m not sure we will implement that but we will consider it.
I guess, ForkLift doesn’t use the copy when it downloads the file. I have added this to our ticketing system and we will consider if a change should/could be made there.
Understood on all counts; perhaps if you don’t want to add the Wasabi icon, you could get rid of the Amazon portion of the S3 icon and instead use a generic “S3” for all supported S3 services…. But obviously this is a much lower priority than everything else you’re doing with FL4 right now.
Thanks again. I wish ForkLift a long and healthy life!
Thank you for the suggestion. You are right, this is not high on our to-do list right now, but we will consider it.
> One bug(?) or lack-of-feature that I see with ForkLift 4 is that it seems impossible to delete favorites from the sidebar — although I discovered that you *can* delete a whole favorite group.
Somehow I missed the “Favorites” menu, perhaps new to FL4 or perhaps already in FL3, which lets me rename, reörder, add, and delete favorites. This makes the inability to delete a favorite directly in the sidebar much less important. Hooray!
We will add an option to delete the favorites inside the Favorite Manager (Favorites > Show favorites) in the next update. There will be a trash can button at the bottom of the pane.
Any ability to customise the right-click menu yet?
Unfortunately, that is not possible yet. But that feature is still on our feature request list, and hopefully, that will be an addition to ForkLift 4 in the future.
Oh and within View options, is there a way to show media info e.g. image or dimensions, mp3 info etc.? I know this can be shown in Preview but I generally have Preview off for speed purposes.
Been waiting for both of the above features.
That info is now available in the Preview. Unfortunately, it is not available in a column inside the panes. As with the other feature as well, this is also on our feature request list.
When will the ForkLift app support automatic theme switching based on system light/dark mode?
When you choose the Default theme in ForkLift 4, that is going to happen automatically. Following the system appearance was possible in ForkLift 3 as well, but it mattered how you started using the Auto theme in the System Preferences/Settings and then how you choose the theme in ForkLift, so that didn’t work for everybody automatically.
Can the Theme used be customized after switching, like using ForkLift Theme in dark mode? Similar to VSCode and Jetbrains IDEs?
Do you want to use a specified theme as the “day” theme and one as the “night” theme, when the System switches between the light and dark themes? That is not possible at the moment, but we hope to add that feature in the future.
When will the upgrade be available on setapp?
According to our plans, next week.
Some features are worse than the finder.
The finder remembers the sorting options for each folder, but ForkLift doesn’t.
finder can autocomplete and attach existing tags, but ForkLift can’t.
ForkLift 4 can remember the sorting options if you enable that in the View Options of that folder where you want to use different settings. Open the View Options Panel (Command-J) and on the top from the drop-down choose This Folder instead of All Folders. Some of the settings are global, some can be folder specific.
I think, that technically, it is not possible to offer the same tag autocomplete option as Finder. Allowing that was on our to-do list, but if I remember correctly, that wasn’t possible to allow. We will check that again.
One more thing!
The Finder remembers the expanded state of each folder, but ForkLift does not.
ForkLift doesn’t remember that with a reason, because on remote connections restoring the expanded folder structure can take a lot of time and resources, which can make the app not to respond until the structure is restored. However, allowing that with local folders, would be a possibility.
If you are not aware of it Macbites After Hours did a deep dive (about an hour) on Forklift 4 on Utube.
Really useful for new users. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYv2xK5Jd2A&t=1558s
Thank you for letting us know! They have done a pretty good job covering ForkLift 4! And they are going to continue reviewing it next week.
Hello.
How to add a favorites icon to tray bar?
ForkLift 3 have a little favorite icon for quick open, but ForkLift 4 doesn’t have.
You can customize the toolbar by right-clicking it and selecting Customize Toolbar from the menu. Drag the icons that you want to add to the toolbar to the toolbar to add them.
One word for you – GREED! This reminds me of what Waves tried to force on users a few months ago. There are many alternatives file managers out there you know.
Well, congrats, you’ve got high level of self-criticism.
If you don’t like the offer, as you said, there are bunch of an alternatives.
Hi. I appreciate the extra upgrade days, but I’ve never felt unappreciated using Forklift 2 or 3. I hope my 2 years purchase helps fund some nice upgrades for me and experiences for you 🙂
Thank you
There ist really a tremendous speed boost during the sync process!
Good job!!!
Thanks!
As a ForkLift user since version 2, I was very happy about the offer to existing customers and took advantage of the promotion. Unfortunately, I immediately regretted the purchase. Because I spent money on an updated product that has fewer features than the old one.
Since Windows 3.11 I used to use Norton Commander and then TotalCommander.
In ForkLift 3 I could define the shortcuts to match the Commander-style shortcuts. In version 4 I have to manually set each single command to his Commander-style equivalent. And even worse, the keyboard selection is not available anymore. I don’t understand why working features are simply not adopted?
Nobody does. Not even agnesbinary. But thanks for posting, maybe with enough pressure Binarynights will bring keyboard selection back.
I bought forklift 4, it doesn’t work, I need technical support or a refund. I have run everything the manual says. I have Mac OS ventura.
I haven’t upgraded to Forklift 4 yet, so I’m afraid I can’t give you much help.
This is only the comments section of a blog post, you’ll have better luck emailing them at support [at] binarynights [dot] com.
You might also want to describe what the problem is. “It doesn’t work” isn’t enough info. What doesn’t work? Does the app not open? Is it a certain feature that doesn’t function properly? The more specific you are the better help you’ll get.
Good luck 🙂
Please contact us in an email and explain the problem in more detail. We have received so many emails, that unfortunately, we are way behind answering them, so if you have already contacted us via email, then we will get back to you soon.
1. How can I see if my old license is “long-standing” or not? If I enter my key, I get a positive response, but I don’t see the number of extra days…
2. How long will the upgrade offer be valid (weeks, months, forever)?
Thanks
If you enter your old license key and you can register ForkLift 4 with it, then it is still valid. You can check the date under ForkLift > About ForkLift. If that date is within 100 days, then it might be better to buy a new license now in case you are planning to buy a license after that date anyway. The reason for that is that now you get an additional “Release Bonus”: 100 days of free updates on top of the time included in your license and your upgrade bonus.
The Upgrade Bonus is an ongoing promotion, and we currently have no plans to discontinue it in the foreseeable future.
The Release Bonus is a limited-time offer with a forthcoming end, likely within 30 days, though the exact end date remains uncertain
In case your license is still valid for let’s say 5 more months, then wait with the upgrade, you will get your upgrade bonus later too. But if the license expires withing the next 3 months, then you make a better deal if you upgrade now.
Good morning. I think that for each user, the question of the day is (perhaps): BUY this new (developed from scratch) version 4.0 of ForkLift without all the functions of version 3 and therefore a patent regression or INVEST in it future (?) in the American company BinaryNights so that it provides itself in the future with more financial and human resources to finally finalize this version 0?… Sorry, but as it stands, ForkLift 4 is not finalized, it is truncated with too many functions, is not localized in French and has too many bugs: I’ll move on and continue to use version 3.5.8. Bye bye!…
Hello, I have just learned about the release of Forklift 4 and am currently trying it out.
I am trying Forklift 4 in a Japanese environment. I can manage to use the English menu, but I am not very good at English and sometimes get confused.
So I have created a resource file with some of Forklift 4’s menu displays in Japanese, based on examples of previous versions that have been converted to Japanese.
I also thought that there might be people who would be happy to see the same Japanese menu, so I have made it available on my blog.
The URL of my blog is https://ylupin.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-11909.html.
Is there any problem in terms of licensing to create and use a resource like this?
If there is a problem, I will remove the published file from my blog.
We understand that supporting multiple languages can be a challenge. However, if it is possible, I would appreciate it if you could officially support Japanese. Also, if you can make use of any of my resources in doing so, please feel free to use them.
Thank you for doing that. That is no problem at all! We want to add Japanese localization to ForkLift later. Could you please contact us in an email at support [at] binarynights [dot] com? Use the subject: Japanese localization and also write us that you have created this localization.
Hello 🙂
Is SSH support planned?
Would it be possible to provide an option to export the configuration of all my registered domains to export them to another machine?
THANKS
ForkLift has support for ssh/sftp. What do you mean exactly?
If you enable synchronization of the favorites via iCloud in the Settings, then all your favorites will be synced to the cloud and your other Macs if you enable the same setting on your other Macs as well (using the same Apple ID). If you don’t want to do that, then you can copy the folder that contains the favorites from one Mac to the other mac while ForkLift is not running. The favorites are located in the “J3CP9BBBN6.com.binarynights.ForkLift” inside ~/Library/Group Containers/
You need to copy the entire folder to the same location on the other Mac.
Having used FL since ever, as the best NC-Clone on Mac, and having tested the Beta since the first public version, I am more than happy to buy the company license for the Studio (and SetApp for my private Use) and consider the pricing vs (at least MY, the team still uses finder too much ;-)) daily use ultra-fair. No other alternative to the finder works as smooth and looks as pleasing while being a work-horse from (S)FTP to renaming files to Syncing Folders etc. There is always room for improvement (getting the Dropbox-right-click-interface to work in FL, shortcuts-workflows, a better tagging workflow and so on) but that is always the case with software. Very nice work, as ever, and really happy to support this.
Thank you
I use the Setapp version and it just upgraded. All my settings are gone, in the middle of my workday. Can’t describe how annoying this is. Please handle this better in the future.
Definitely (for the moment), this version 4.0 is absolutely not finalized, so we should not be surprised to support too many bugs and anomalies. A dead end!… Now, when will binaryNights release its first patch?… I think we’ll have to wait a very, very long time. What a pity… ;-(
We are sorry for that.
Well, it’s sad that binarynights follows the annoying trend and now wants to dig into customers’ wallets permanently. I have been using the tool for many years since version 1, but I will not follow the cash grab step and remove my version 3 when it stops working. Feel free to keep version 4 and all that follow. good luck.
It is not a subscription, the only change is, that won’t get free updates after a year or two after you bought the license. Otherwise you can use the software as long as you want. And if you want to get another update you get a new license. ForkLift 3 was also a paid upgrade.
Yeah, correct and I think it is fair business model. However, FL4 is a downgrade for most of us.
Imagine the situation that before the end of the paid period there will be a serious issue and the fix will take some time. The update will come only when you no longer have paid support. Is it fair to pay for fixing issue which was created during paid period? Fixes should be free for all times because nobody would bought buggy software.
Yes, it is. Just put yourself in developers shoes. How long do devs supposed to support a product sold once? Forever? They also need to eat 😉
For example, Vandyke is doing the same. Microsoft was doing the same but then switched to the subscription model.
Please revert to the old logo – than I can by.
If you’re serious on this (I’m not sure) …. why don’t you change it by yourself?
https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/01/06/how-to-change-app-icons-on-macos
Bring back keyboard selection please. ForkLift is basically unusable without it.
Agree!
I’m sorry but we don’t plan to bring keyboard selection back.
Your business model is a little strange.
– Please consider to split upgrades in two categories : Feature updates, and bugs/OS Support updates. You can charge us for the first group but it’s not fair to charge us for the second.
– As an old Forklift user, I expected a lower price to upgrade from 3 to 4 (like 50%).
– Last comment : Could you please write a blog post to compare 3 vs 4, Because I am happy with 3 and not seeing new features that worth the upgrade. I am willing to buy the 4 to support you, I will be happy to see that I also get new useful features.
Thx again,
continue your efforts
Wann kann man die zweiten 100 Tage für den zusätzlichen Bonus eingeben?
Angekündigt wurde es ja am 06.09.Aktuell kann ich diese Möglichkeit noch nicht erkennen.
Danke für eine Info.
We will add that option to ForkLift 4 soon. That feature needs a little bit more testing.
As I a used Fork Lift about 10 times per year to access some FTP servers, the new subscription model does not make any sense to me. This would mean I would pay about USD 2.00 per use!
I loved Fork Lift for my lifetime license, which seems obviously not to keep it’s promise.
Sadly, Binerynights does now follow the subscription model. Therefore I’m out and sticked to the version 3 or need to look for an alternative.
ForkLift 4 doesn’t follow the subscription model. If you use the app 10 times a year, then you probably don’t really need to upgrade and can continue using ForkLift 3 as long as that works for you without issues.